taxes to immigration. tuesday was a good day for democrats, but not always for unions, big labor suffered some big losses on ballot measures across the country and we'll tell you where, but first, i'm joined by wall street columnist, peggy noonan, why do you think that mitt romney lost? >> i think that already we know some of the usual suspects even days after the election, the get out the vote effort on the democratic side was, appears to have been a master piece that will probably have impact on national elections going into the future. republicans have a lot to learn there. and there have been demographic changes in america. at the end of the day, i think my surprise about the election was that it was not so close in a way everybody was thinking we'd be up until four in the morning or counting ohio votes for two weeks. that didn't happen. this was a solid win for the

president and i think the republican party has much to think about here going into the future. >> paul: thinking is always good. and maybe a step back and give at least some time to think. you wrote in the column, the republicans don't need to change their fundamental principles, belief in small government and so on, but maybe the way they present the principles. >> the way, the way they -- the way the party goes forward sometimes, it is the way -- is the way that unnecessarily, i think, occasionally turns people off. i also think something big, a big lesson for the republican party in this election is to look at america, see the republican base, the famous republican base and see that, oh, this is not expanding any more. this is where it is, maybe it's beginning to contract.

the attitude of political professionals since i was a pup on the republican side, has always been, every election is an opportunity to turn out the base, that's what we do, excite the base, press their buttons, that's the story. well, long-term that's just never a strategy that will work. one of the things i think the party will have to do now is listen to certain voices, such as up here in new york, heather higgins of iwb. >> paul: independent women's forum. >> i'm sorry, iwf. she's been saying to party political professionals, the answer is not to drill deep into the base. the answer is to expand the base. and that is through going to people, that's through conversation, that's talking to them about the issues they care about. it is not operating from up

here with big ads that just press people's buttons, it's operating in a way like the obama campaign did, it's going down on the ground and talking to people, it's labor intensive, but it's a way of growing. it's a way of persuading people. so, i think the republicans have gotten kind of bad at. >> paul: is it a way of saying at its simplest almost crass terms, we actually care about you, in a fundamental way, are republicans talking too much in abstractions we want to cut this tax or that tax or we have that grand reform idea without being able to connect it in some tangible way to voters lives? >> yeah, all of what you said, i think, is true, but it's also just this top down thing where we are communicating for you on high, through big buys of advertisements, that say things that are sometimes essentially now aimed to move

you or get you mad, that's not how to talk to people. you've got to go down there and talk from the bottom up and also as jason riley said, make people welcome. let them know that they are welcome in this party. don't give this hectoring tone, i don't know, about things like marginal tax rates which is sort of the language all humans don't speak. >> we speak that at the wall street journal. how do you think that president obama emerges from this, it was a negative tiff, relentlessly negative gain, has he emerged enhances after being elected. governing a second term? >> i'll tell you he was an incumbent president, he just won by a smaller margin than he did the first time out, this is the first time since woodrow wilson a second termer won by fewer votes. in a funny way, it is possible

that the president, looking back now on everything, might, might feel a growing humility and that would be a lovely thing. yes, i do-- (laughter) >> not his trademark. >> no, it's not. never has been. >> however, a shrewd political move right now would be be magnanimous, he's had a problem working with republicans on the hill. people have written books about them. it's all over, everybody knows he's not a good negotiator and fumbled the first time out. change your way. go to the hill, go to the republicans and say i want to deal. this president's people are said to talk sometimes about his legacy, nothing would enhance his legacy like making a peaceful deal with republicans on the hill now about the fiscal cliff issues. >> make some substantive accommodation with them and/or put some-- maybe name a republican treasury secretary, say, or

cabinet appointee or something like that. >> that may be, a republican treasury secretary, that may be going too far. look, i think the american people would like to see washington begin to handle successfully some of the problems that only washington can handle. >> paul: right. >> the federal budget, budget issues, et cetera. it would be good for the country and i think it would be good for the president if he started out now not with the old stuff and the old fight and the old don't push me on that, i'll go to the people and make you back down. >> paul: i won, you lost, my way or the highway. >> none of that stuff. something new. the left would accept it they're feeling so good. the right would be shocked and think, wow, maybe progress can be made. it would be a good thing. >> paul: all right, peggy, thank you so much for being here. still ahead, from taxes to immigration to energy, a look at president obama's second

term agenda is a move to the midddddddddd

>> in the coming weeks and months, i am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together, reducing our deficit. reforming our tax codes and fixing our immigration systems and from foreign oil. we've got more work to do.

. >> paul: that was president obama tuesday night promising to work with republicans on some big issues. the president wasn't exactly known for his bipartisanship in the first term, will the second be different? we're back with dan henninger, jason riley and kim strassel and james freeman also joins the panel. so, the president's second term's usually not successful. >> usually not. there are exceptions, but, what does the president need to make his better than the first. >> well, i'm certainly hoping that he was telling the truth when he spoke to the des moines register and told them he was going to push corporate tax reform to eliminate deductions and simplify without collecting revenue and work with republicans to get rid of necessary regulation. so if that's true and nothing in the first term to suggest that it is, then he might have a decent second term. >> paul: that's the thing, the question that i was talk to

poei peggy noonan about, is he going to be magnanimoumagnanimo. >> i wouldn't expect-- but he does have a vested interest in getting some things done in a second term. and some of the things i'd buy and some things i don't. he talked in the acceptance speech about getting-- getting us off of foreign oil. how? >> you know what that means-- >> that's what he means. >> and i would predict this, you will see floated during this term, a carbon tax idea. but something like immigration reform i think he could be serious. >> and you think that republicans-- kim, would republicans be willing to work with the president on immigration reform? there's a lot of bad feeling from the first term on that because of the way the president attacked the arizona law and tried to make republicans looks like they

were anti-hispanic. >> that's right. and i think some of this will depend on what lessons the republicans take out of this election, demographically as we were talking about, whether there isn't some self-interest to them and actually taking a lead on immigration reform, although there's a lot of-- what we did on tuesday, status quo to government, divided government. i don't see a huge amount of willingness on either side other than the the immediate things they will have to deal with like the fiscal cliff, to work on anything big together. i think when said-- i'm sorry, go ahead. >> paul: dan, if you look the at reagan's second term and clinton's second terms, they had ups and down and obviously clinton was impeached. and reagan iran-contra, the second thing that defined them was growth, rapid economic growth and good feeling in the country about their presidency because of that.

obama needs in my view, faster growth not 1%, 2%, get it up to 3, 4%. is he able to get that. does he understands that and try to shift policies in a way that aim for that goal because that would leave him much more popular four years from now. >> i think he has no clue, very simply. look, we have discussed many times on the show how obama wants to take federal spending from a historic 20% of grosse pointe woods up to around 24% because he needs it up there to do all the things that he promised in the campaign, which is to subsidize education, subsidize energy and so forth, he needs a higher level of spending, the idea is that if you have large levels of federal spending, keynesian response and stimulates the economy, and first term proves it doesn't work and if he does it again, there's no way he's going to

get high growth. >> paul: and what political would you expect, to say, okay, this is a move to the middle. >> you can see how he responds to john boehner, said this week, signaled that he's willing to accept maybe the government will collect some more revenue, but let's not raise tax rate. let's get rid of deduction and benefits of simplicity there and thinking about trying to get economic growth. i think if the president responds by saying let's do a bipartisan reform instead of demanding trillions in new tax revenue, then i think that would be a good thing. >> paul: one of the thing boehner, my sources are saying, they would like to do is to get the president extend the bush tax rates for another year to avoid an immediate blow to the economy and time to negotiate a larger tax reform and entitlement deal. if the president insists, said, look, i litigated taxes in the election, tax rates are going up right away and automatically are and i'm going to insist on that, then do you think we're back to the barricades? >> that's a sign that the first term was instructive and

the des moines register was not, that he's going to stay to the left. he's also, he's facing another eform must challenge even if he doesn't get buried by benghazi hearings, the interest rates are not going to stay low forever. they're going to rise. the government is going to struggle to come up with its financing. >> you mean zero interest rates aren't perpetual? i can't-- >> and when we come back from collective bargaining, to gay marriage in maryland, to a tax marriage in maryland, to a tax hike in california and l l l l l [ rosa ] i'm rosa and i quit smoking with chantix. when the doctor told me that i could smoke for the first week... i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression

or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serus allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. it helps to have people around you... they say, you're much bigger than this. and you are. [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you.